Oh Sensei, My Ex-Sensei!
by ReflectedGrace
Summary: They may be trained, deadly kunoichi, but sometimes girl's hearts are unpredictable. Series of one-shots in which grown-up Tenten, Sakura, Ino, encounter/ponder the men they've grown-up with and admire. (honestly, who wouldn't fall a little bit in love with their teachers in Konoha?)


1. T_entenXGai_

* * *

The noodle stand was busy today. Tenten shrugged and turned her shoulders inward, over her noodle bowl and book. It was the latest weapons manual...but tucked between the covers was a book that had grabbed her attention. _Jane Eyre. _

(Ino had thrown it at her in one of her moods, yelling about schoolwork and boys and why were older men so attractive? and how she'd had it up to her neck with life and she didn't need a book making it worse. Tenten had obliged her by listening to her vent, and then tucked the copy into her backpack. Might as well see what caused the rant.)

She had _hoped_ for a quiet afternoon, with her book and her food, and not having to think about any other people. Certainly not the boneheads who were out on a mission right now. Her teammates.

Suddenly the ambience of the noodle stand quieted down.

Tenten turned her head around, and saw the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha stride proudly down the sidewalk and push through the curtains of Ichiraku.

Gai was standing there, bright yellow wildflowers in hand, eyes and face beaming like there were extra-wattage lamps in him that had just flipped on.

Aaaaanndd now he was opening his mouth.

Well, there went her quiet afternoon.

* * *

The silence in the bar was deafening. A golden laugh, like bells, broke the silence.

Tenten gaped the shocking tableau that had unfolded across the café. Gai, her former sensei, stood in front of a table of visiting kunoichi, yellow wildflowers in extended his hand, and a Nice Guy grin slowly fading from his face.

His words, which caused Tenten to whip her head in a double-take, still echoed in the air.

"_O beautiful kunoichi, I am impressed with your youthful vigor and beauty. I too value company and laughter and would ask you to accompany me to the Firework Festival tonight."_

The source of the laugh, a blond kunoichi, leaned over in her chair, surrounded by her friends. Tenten recognized them as a group which Gai had been assigned to accompany around the town during their diplomatic visit.

This, apparently, was an extra-curricular activity which Gai had proposed. Her stomach briefly flipped and Tenten wondered if she could keep her lunch down at the sight of Gai actually…_asking someone out._ She shivered. Had Gai ever asked anyone out before? He must have, she supposed, but thankfully she'd never been present when it'd happened…

Then her answer tinkled out in the air, between laughs:

"Sorry Gai, but…it's just kind of funny…"

Gai's face went blank and the bouquet dropped to the floor beside him. Tenten twitched with sudden murderous intentions toward "Blondie". Her fingers started moving. Weapons flicked through her mind as she sized up her target. Distance, range, speed of fatality, she measured. Exploding tags? Too messy in this environment.

The blond still laughed, leaning over her seat, shoulders shaking, her arms motioning "stop!" in the air.

"A-are you serious?" she gasped.

Tenten nearly yelled across the room, "Yes, he IS you heartless—" and then Blondie sat up, her brilliant smile and face visible. Tenten felt her guts twist as she saw the clear blue eyes, the porcelain skin, and cascading waves of golden blonde hair. Even her laughter, which Tenten wished to murder her for, was beautiful. A Whirlpool Country hitaten-ai held her hair back.

"Did Rodan put you up to this?" she asked, smile even wider, looking around at her companions.

Gai shook his head, silently.

A serious expression suddenly sobered the blond's face. Even though this was evidence that she had some social graces, Tenten spitefully wished she was embarrassed forever.

"I-I can't Gai! S-sorry…no." She ducked her head in apology, and eyed her friends.

Her group of kunoichi quickly scooted their chairs back, dropped payment on the table, and left.

Gai stood in the restaurant, eyes fixed on the ground, not noticing the hubbub beginning around him again.

Tenten groaned internally.

_Dangit, Gai, you've got no social awareness, do you? MOVE, get out of here! _

She wanted to go over there, gather him up, shove the stupid bouquet in his hands, and push him out of the noodle shop before he caused any more embarrassment.

_Don't let them laugh at you!_ surged the thought, constricting her throat.

Her chair squeaked as her limbs itched to move. His head snapped up.

Black eyes, still as dark marble met hers. His eyebrows raised quickly, and then before Tenten could do anything, he bent down, gathered the flowers and was gone in a flash.

_Darn Team Gai's speed_, she thought.

While she tried to focus on her book for the next half-hour, before giving up and heading back to her flat, the rest of her food un-touched.

She didn't know, her stomach just felt weird.

* * *

The night was hushed, but a full moon oversaw the wide grounds of the village, dampening sneaky shinobi activity, and making this a perfect night for strolling around.

Tenten found herself wandering out late, curious, feet following the hunch in her stomach.

She walked cautiously up to the training ground. A "crack!" echoed as Gai broke through another training post.

She winced. Ever since the Hokage got fed up with Gai's upside-down handstand laps around the village, she'd banned him from any excessive laps in any strange positions in all of Konoha. So his silly threats of ludicrous self-punishment had turned into ordinary and serious, though destructive, training. Which only happened when no one else was around.

His face was knit into extreme concentration, brows pulled together. Tenten recognized his intense concentration from training, and would have thought nothing was wrong, except for his eyes. The dark eyes, were lit with an odd fire.

Tenten suddenly wished he could walk around town on his hands and knees instead.

He stood over the fallen pole, panting. Green spandex-clad shoulders rolled back, a sigh, and then he moved over to the next pole, until, after about five punches, it too crashed to the ground.

Tenten bit her lip as she watch Gai effectively pound the training grounds into oblivion. Carefully, she crunched on some leaves as she walked up behind the Green Beast, to prevent her head from being his next target out of surprise.

"So…uh…what about those 500 laps around Hokage tower…on your hands?" she said, foot twitching on the ground.

The black head whirled around, and Tenten was fixed with an angry gaze for an instant, before he relaxed into a smile.

"Ah, Tenten! I did not expect you to use your finely honed shinobi skills to sneak up on your instructor!"

"Former instructor." She corrected automatically, before biting her tongue. She didn't mention how she'd pointedly announced her presence.

His face seemed to fall a fraction, but instantly nodded.

"Yes, yes, of course."

Silence fell, except for the chorus of woodland insects from the forest.

"Ah...any particular reason you're training so hard? This late at night?" she asked, toe grinding into the dirt. As she avoided Gai's face, she wondered why she hadn't just called Lee up to go talk to him…Lee would know what to say. The role of counselor (to GAI-SENSEI) hung heavily on her shoulders.

She heard a sigh, and he looked off into the forest. Tenten looked at his face, uncharacteristically somber. While his face was large, features carved like cartoons, she'd never noticed how aesthetically the smooth planes intersected at hard lines. He looked carved out of rock. She realized why Sai had been so insistent on sketching him a few years ago.

He smiled. Tenten nearly gasped. It was a normal every-day-human smile, which only curved the edges of his mouth, and barely reached his eyes. Gosh, he must be depressed, she thought.

"Nothing, Tenten," he said. "Just reaching for youthfulness…" and then he sighed again and she swore she heard his breath hitch. Anger boiled up inside of her.

"I wanted to kill her!" she burst out.

His eyebrows shot up instantly. "What?"

"I-I mean, I was in the café today, and I saw that stupid Whirlpool ninja with her friends, and her STUPID laugh and how she made fun of you in front of everyone, and I was two seconds from planting a kunai in her throat!"

Gai's face was still wide with shock. "Tenten?" he breathed.

"I mean, she's beautiful and all that," she interrupted, briefly cursing inside, "and I can see why you haven't asked anyone else out before, if that's the kind of woman that you like, since I haven't seen anyone THAT beautiful for a while, but…I HATE her anyway!"

The bushy brows were still in his hairline. Tenten wondered if she'd ever blabbered so much before. She didn't think so. On Team Gai she was the most level-headed one (except for Neji, but he was so levelheaded that he wasn't, if that makes any sense.)

With confusion beginning to cloud over Gai's face, Tenten realized that while Gai was an expressive, loud man prone to talk about his feelings, he was still a man. A man who really didn't know quite what to do with an over-emotional womanly ouburst. She tried to think of an explanation, (heck, her SANITY needed an explanation.)

"She was wrong." Apparently, the weight in her chest needed to press MORE embarrassing things out of her mouth.

It seemed to echo in the silence. Gai's eyebrows took on a puzzled tilt. Tenten flushed and felt heat pooling in the corner of her eyes, threatening to spill out.

"I don't care if she was beautiful! She was stupid for turning you down! She didn't see that any woman should be lucky to go out with you! Because…she may think that your declarations are silly or embarrassing, but…you're strong for saying them!"

Oh great, what is she saying? Welp, too late to turn back now. She breathed and forged ahead.

"You're strong for being so caring…Half the shinobi in the village are emotionally stunted wrecks who are too embarrassed and proud to communicate when they like someone! But you care enough that you'll announce it in front of everyone, and give her flowers and treat her like a princess!"

Tenten's brain no now longer know what she was saying. It could only sit back in horror. Like watching a training accident. Her aching heart squeezed in her chest.

Her head dropped, the leaves on the ground all she could look at, her ears burning, the cool breeze chilling the wet tracks on her cheeks.

Suddenly, the leaves shook as a booming laugh echoed out. Tenten looked up in shock.

Gai was leaning back, hands on his sides, laughing. LAUGHING. She wanted to die.

"Tenten, my youthful blossom!" he said, face alight with all the familiar enthusiasm. "You have come with all your vigor and enthusiasm to cheer up your old sensei, and you have done well!"

A strong hand clapped on her shoulder and Tenten reached out to the pole at her side to steady herself.

"Um…what?"

His face was full-on Nice Guy mode, eyebrows wide, smile beaming. He took a step forward, and Tenten realized she had automatically stepped backwards…Had he always been this tall? His shoulders nearly blocked out the moon they were so MASSIVE. Maybe she'd been too young to notice, but whoa. Gai was a LOT of man to be standing close to, and when he turned on his blinding smile, Tenten felt her stomach quiver in a weird way.

"Cheering me up! Where are Lee and Neji? In the bushes? I appreciate your efforts, and I applaud their intelligence in sending you, the delicate blossom, to come and speak such kind words about the softer side of life to me, but it was not necessary."

His head swished from side to side, examining the bushes. Now, both of his hands held down her shoulders, like a ton of bricks (a warm, soft, ton of bricks, her brain suggested) and she slowly caught up.

"What?...No! No, this wasn't team Gai or a sinister plan or anything, Gai, it was just me! I was there earlier and I saw what happened, and I figured you'd be here…"

He continued talking as if she wasn't there.

"I know I spoke with Lee last week about how much your youth and beauty has blossomed since becoming a Jounin, and how proud I was of your vigorous achievements, but I didn't think he would use that observation quite like this! In fact, I remember distinctly informing him that soon enough you would be plucked by a fellow youthful classmate, if he or Neji did not make any chivalrous attempt."

Tenten opened her mouth to reply, but blushed furiously. He said what? Her…beauty? _Plucked_ by a fellow _classmate_? Did he even know what that IMPLIED? And…Lee and Neji? Chivalrous attempt? WHAT?

Her head was spinning, but Gai kept talking, smile on his face.

"Of course, he declared his undying love of Sakura, and Neji is…not quite youthful in that respect, I think, but I certainly didn't think that they would entrap you into anything like this!"

She looked up at his smiling face, and tried to remember what she was saying. His dark eyes were once again glowing with his usual good-humor, and for some reason her stomach decided to lurch like she'd eaten bad ramen. His hands _burned_ on her shoulders, and she struggled with words. The world was topsy-turvy.

"N-no, Gai, you don't understand. This isn't a plot, I don't know what you're talking about, I just came…for you…because…because…I didn't want you to be hurt, because…because…"

She looked up at his smiling face and, horror of horrors, before she knew what she was doing, she'd leaned in. Her lips pressed against something soft, her breath sucked in, and her stomach began doing backflips.

Oh. Sweet. Kami. The lips under her own were Gai's. GAI-SENSEI'S. She was KISSING GAI-SENSEI.

Her hands apparently decided that traveling was a good thing, and ran across the sides of his face (_a man's skin, slightly stubbly_) and now one was up in his hair, running through it, messing up his bowl cut _, (so silky, I could do this all day._)

Her brain was screaming at her, but Tenten felt her mind dissolving under all the sensations she was registering.

Soft…mmm…firm…mmph….strong arms, tightening around her, pulling her closer…mmMMMmmpphh…She was melting…no oxygen…mmmmmWAIT.

Her eyes snapped open, and she realized her arms were wrapped around his neck, and of special note, his strong arms were crushing her to his body in a firm embrace. She saw that Gai sensei, eyes closed, was passionately returning her kiss.

She exclaimed reflexively, (but it came out like: "Mmmm-erghhh—AAAHH!") as Gai suddenly pulled back. His eyes shot open, mirroring Tenten's frame of mind. He had to be thinking the same thing, she thought.

The moon was bright in the clearing, as silence again, broken only by catching their breath and looking everywhere but each other. Tenten heard shallow panting and realized with horror it was _her._

She glanced at Gai. His face was BRICK RED. She would have laughed, if it didn't ignite an even deeper blush on her own cheeks.

OH. KAMI. Didshejustdowhatshethoughtshedid?

Her brain had kicked back in and was rattling off so fast that she nearly didn't hear what Gai was saying, looking pointedly at the bushes behind her.

"…no intention of sullying a precious flower, simply youthful reflexes which unfortunately continue late into life, forgive me Tenten…"

And before she could open her mouth, he turned around and leaped away into the dark forest.

Tenten sat straight down in the underbrush. Leaves blew against her legs and she tilted her head back to let the cool wind blow across her face.

She blew a long breath out, mingling it in the breeze.

_Oh Gai_, she thought, wincing, _I don't think it's your youthful reflexes you have to worry about._

Memories of the warmth and pressure, and oh-everything-that-was-holy those arms swirled around her head.

The only other sound that broke the silence of the training ground that night was the long, drawn-out groan of a very confused jounin.

* * *

A/N: Wow, found this in my ancient files on my computer, and after-re-reading, decided to just throw it out there. ACK. :-) (technically this is my first Naruto-fic I've published, though it's not the first I've written) I've been out of the fandom for a while now, so I'm unsure if I'll add anything...though I know it's cruel to strand Tenten and her former sensei like this. (spoilers: they have a happy ending with lots of kunai-throwing babies. :-)

This was designed as a series of one-shots, each focusing on a different SenseiXStudent pairing. Some are one-sided, other are reciprocated...I just see where the characters take me (all are het, because that's what I write.) So far, I have AsumaXIno almost finished, and some written on KakaSaku...lemme know if there's a pair I'm missing that you're dying to read...rare pairings ftw! :-)

Once again, comments, questions, squeeing, flails, and just any kind of review is deeply and gratefully appreciated...I haven't written anything in a while, so I wanna rub the rust off! Let me know what you thought! :-)


End file.
